The Road to Freedom

Another amazing day today. We saw our other wonderful sponsor child- he has grown so tall! When we arrived in 2013, we had the privilege of seeing him almost daily as he was practicing to go with the choir to Australia, but we have not see him since. He is now 15 years old and is a very intelligent young man who does very well in school and would like to be an engineer. He is one of the future leaders of this country and it is such a privilege to play a small part in his story.

We also had the chance to visit with his mother Mama Christine. She is one of the most incredible people on this planet. She is not wealthy, she is not famous, but I think she very well may be the most amazing person I have ever met. Come have tea with me sometime and I will tell you all about her.

Our daughter Courtney and her husband Cam also have a sponsor child in this village. We popped in to see him and give him a soccer ball, which he was very happy to receive. Then off to deliver a card and a skipping rope to my friend Gail’s sponsor child.

On the way to see these children, we drove on my very favourite road in the whole world- the road to Laminadera children’s village. It is a murram road (that beautiful red dirt that reminds you that you are in Africa), out in the country with children walking along it, playing with their friends or going to get water for their family.

While seeing the beautiful red roads and the smiles of the beautiful children always warms my heart, there is so much more that makes this road special. I like to call it “The Road to Freedom”.

Northern Uganda experienced a brutal civil war that lasted for over two decades. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) waged war on the people of this region. Children were kidnapped and forced to be child soldiers, often being forced to kill their own families, as a way of desensitizing them to the killing. This also forced these child soldiers to stay with the LRA because they had no family to go back to and their extended family would never accept someone who killed their own family. Many of the girls (even very young girls) were kidnapped and forced to be “wives” to the LRA commanders. They were raped repeatedly, gave birth to several children and most (if not, all) contracted HIV.

Everyone lived in fear of when and where the next LRA attack would be. Children walked many miles every night to find a safe place to sleep in a larger town (like Gulu) and then walked back to their village in the morning. Many of us in North America heard about the “night commuters”, but if you were like me, you heard about it and thought, “That is awful” and continued on with life.

For me, that has now changed. I have friends who night commuted. I have friends who have described to me what it is like to have the LRA invade your village, how the night sky lights up like daylight from the gun fire and from the LRA burning your village to the ground. This is very real to me now and it tears my heart out.

That is why the road to Laminadera and the village itself are so very special to me. You see, the very place where the village is located was a major crossing point for the LRA. Many atrocities, beyond our wildest nigh

tmares, occurred on that very soil. Hundreds, if not thousands of bodies were buried there.

But…God has renewed this land. Northern Uganda is now safe once again and the very land that was used for extreme evil is now being used to raise children in the knowledge of Christ’s love. Where there once was gun fire, there now is singing and dancing- oh, the Acholi people love to sing and dance! Where there once was pain and pure evil, there are children running and laughing and playing.

When I stand in Laminadera village a line from a song comes to mind , we are “Taking back what the devil has stolen.” Never have truer words been spoken. This village is living proof of what God has done in this region.

And as I stand there, another song comes to mind

“We are standing on holy ground

 And I know that there are angels all around

 Let us praise Jesus now

 We are standing in His presence on holy ground.”